When they are not used, cosmetics applicators and primarily mascara applicators protrude into a storage container in which the cosmetic to be applied is located. It is thus ensured that the cosmetics applicator is available copiously charged with the cosmetic. The charge of the cosmetics applicator is enhanced in many cases by the fact that the cosmetics unit is not only placed, “cap up and bottom down”, on the tray of the washing basin in the bathroom at home, but that it is in mobile use and is transported for this purpose in the handbag.
Therefore, it must be ensured that the cosmetics applicator, when withdrawn from the storage container, is always charged with exactly the right amount of cosmetic and does not “pull out” an excess of cosmetic from the storage container.
Usually wipers are provided for this purpose.
Usually, such wipers, in the broadest sense, have the contour and function of an anus, i.e., they comprise an annular wiper lip which places itself tightly around the shaft of the cosmetics applicator by means of which the cosmetics applicator protrudes into the storage container when it is not used.
Once the wiper is withdrawn from the storage container, the excess amount of the cosmetic adhering to the applicator shaft and the actual applicator is wiped off.
Such annular wipers can be controlled well in practice and therefore do not present any difficulties any more, because suitable wiper designs are available for various cases of application. In recent times, however, there was a call for alternative cosmetics applicators that offer a completely new feel of use. In this context, flat cosmetics applicators were developed, in particular also for the purpose of applying mascara, which correspond rather to a paintbrush as regards their appearance, and which are, however, designed in such a way that, upon closer inspection, they combine the advantages of use of the classical mascara applicators and in particular their brush-like behavior, which guarantees excellent combing and separating capability, with the handling of a paint brush often perceived as advantageous and with its appealing, fresh design.
However, the construction of wipers for such flat applicators entails some challenges. For the length of the contact line in such flat applicators between the wiper and the applicator is several times greater than in known applicators, which is why a substantially greater friction occurs that causes the wider, and thus more unstable wiper much sooner to “turn inside-out” and then exhibit an only unsatisfactory wiping action.
Internal attempts have already been made to counteract this undesirable “turning inside-out” by making the wiper more rigid as a whole. However, this leads to the user having to exert considerable forces in order to pull out the cosmetics applicator towards the outside through the rigid wiper, which develops relatively large frictional forces due to its long contact line. It can hardly be avoided that an abrupt tactile impression is produced upon withdrawing the applicator, because the forces required for the withdrawal of the applicator suddenly become much smaller once the applicator has come out of engagement with the wiper.
It is at least as serious a problem that such flat applicators, in particular in cases where they are used for applying mascara, comprise a bristle covering that can easily be damaged by a wiper that is too rigid.
In light of this, it is the object of the invention to provide a wiper for a flat cosmetics applicator that has an improved effect, in particular in the form of better characteristics during insertion and withdrawal of the flat applicator.